Are there thoughts you repeatedly think, and you want to change those thoughts because you know they’re not good? Are there things you often do, and quite honestly you don’t want to keep doing them? You really do want to change. You want to get better. But you don’t know how to change those thoughts. You don’t know how to change the patterns of your old habits. You don’t know how to change you.
Do you have a behavior within you that you don’t like, but you find yourself acting that way by default? You don’t like being overly competitive and jealous, but you still struggle with certain people being better than you, or their life being better than yours. You don’t like that judgmental and critical side of you, but that side just takes over sometimes. You don’t want to be the nag, the complainer, or the yeller, but there she goes again. It’s you – you’re doing it, and you just can’t seem to stop.
At the root of this is your heart. My friend, this is a heart issue. Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
What is your heart? The Bible isn’t talking about the organ that pumps blood throughout your body. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word ‘lev’ was translated into heart. In the New Testament, the Greek word ‘kardia’ was translated into heart. Both lev and kardia have a much deeper meaning than our word ‘heart’ today. They mean the center of your soul. It’s your core deep within you. Your lev, your kardia, encompasses your emotions, your will, your mind and your spirit. It’s who you are within.
So, Proverbs is telling us instead of focusing on the external of our flat belly, our smooth skin, our dyed hair and our plumply injected lips, we are to focus on the core within us, because that is what determines the course of your life. Who you are, what you do, and where you are going is flowing from deep inside of you. Fixing up the outside isn’t going to change you – this is a heart issue.
But honestly, thinking your problems are because of a heart issue is a little scary, isn’t it? You act like that because your heart is off. You think like that because your heart is out of alignment. You do those things because there is a problem in your heart. And nothing is going to change permanently in your life until your heart changes.
But how do you change your heart? The heart wants what the heart wants, right? And if your heart has gotten twisted or hurt somewhere along the way, how do you untwist that? How do you heal that? How does that old hardened heart of stone become a soft, tender heart of flesh again?
Answer: GOD DOES THAT!
What do you do? You seek God, surrender your heart, and ask him to do a work in your heart! Girl, you gotta let him in!
The Lord himself says in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
Here’s the truly amazing thing – God isn’t just offering to fix up your old heart. He’s not offering a bandaid or even a bypass. He’s offering a NEW HEART! A transplant!
God wants to take out that old hardened heart of yours that’s made you jealous and competitive – that old stony heart of yours that’s made you judgmental and critical – that old stubborn heart that makes you want to yell and argue – and he wants to give you a new heart. This new heart from God is tender and responsive. This new heart is soft.
And remember, your heart is what determines the course of your life. So if God is willing to give you a new heart, then he’s offering you a new course for your life. A new direction. A new way. A radically different experience.